Tempe, AZ Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

' Section 4-903, Permitted Signs, works through two companion tables: Table 4-903A sets which sign types are allowed in each zoning district, and Table 4-903B defines what each lettered sign type actually is, including its permitted location, size and other placement requirements. By locking home occupations into Sign Type B specifically, rather than leaving owners to pick among every sign category available in a residential district, the Code guarantees a home-based business cannot install the larger commercial sign types, illuminated cabinet signs, monument signs or freestanding pole signs, that would otherwise be available to a retail storefront.

Elsewhere in the same Code, Type B is the identical category the City assigns to residential group homes for their identification signage under Section 3-409(C)(3), which confirms Type B is Tempe's standard, low-profile signage classification for uses embedded in residential neighborhoods rather than a business-district category. Because Section 3-412(B) treats every listed standard as mandatory, a home occupation that posts a sign outside the Type B allowance, an A-frame sidewalk sign, a lit window sign, or anything sized or placed like a commercial storefront sign, is out of compliance with the home occupation standard itself, not merely the general sign code.